Monday, 14 December 2015

Albums of 2015 #10 Charli XCX - Sucker

We start our top 10 run down with a record that in some parts of the world was released in 2014, but with an odd non-internet savvy strategy, Charli XCX’s label decided that here in the UK we had to wait until 2015 to hear the follow up to True Romance.Charli’s previous album, our 6th favourite of 2013, had under-performed commercially, not getting anywhere near the UK top 40. The new LP did better, hitting number 15 thanks to Miss Aitchison finally getting some hit singles in the form of Boom Clap (no.6), Break The Rules (no.35) and Doing It (no.8), all of which featured on the record. But whilst True Romance was a blog friendly album of savvy electronic pop songs, Sucker took a different direction. It maintained the trashiness of its predecessor, but was in places bigger, bolder, brasher and more aggressive. There were some guitars, some swearing, lots of hooks and plenty of attitude, including songs about masturbation (Body Of My Own), getting wrecked (Break The Rules) and going out late and crashing a party (Famous). With Sucker Charli XCX put her name alongside a lineage of 90’s bands like Shampoo and Kenickie; female vocal pop bands with a bubblegum punk sensibility about them, but it also hinted in places at Britney Spears or the Spice Girls (who we first mentioned in connection with Charli when we first posted about her way back in 2009 here) with a slightly scissor sharpened edge. Sucker probably isn’t an album that will find its way on to anyone’s album of the decade list in 2019, it understands well enough that pop songs can sometimes be brilliant but ultimately throwaway, but certainly it’s formed a big part of our soundtrack to 2015. Which is why it finds itself at #10 on our end of year list.Charli XCX - London Queen